Born To Run

In Born to Run, director Albert Magnoli (American Anthem, Purple Rain), a past master of the romantic-hero-takes-a-lonely-stand genre, offers a knowing amalgam of Saturday Night Fever and On the Waterfront set against the backdrop of the Brooklyn drag-racing scene, of which this Brooklynite is shamefully ignorant. The cliches speed by well past the legal limit, but they’re served up with conviction, and Richard Grieco is serviceable as the race champ up against the mobster who has corrupted his scene. Film buffs may cry, ”You’re tearin’ me apart!” when Grieco dons James Dean’s red windbreaker from Rebel Without a Cause.